The first bus company in Manhattan was the Fifth Avenue Coach Company, which began operating the Fifth Avenue Line (now the M1 route) in 1886. When New York Railways began abandoning several streetcar lines in 1919, the replacement bus routes (including the current M21 and M22 routes) were picked up by the New York City Department of Plant and Structures (DP&S). The DP&S began operating several other buses (including the current M79 and M96 routes) in 1921. All of these but the M21 were acquired by Green Bus Lines in 1933; Green transferred several of these to the Comprehensive Omnibus Corporation in 1935.

The New York City Omnibus Corporation began operating replacement routes for New York Railways lines abandoned in 1936, and acquired the remaining Green routes. They also acquired the Madison Avenue Coach Company (former New York and Harlem Railroad lines), Eighth Avenue Coach Corporation (former Eighth and Ninth Avenue Railways lines), and in 1942 the Triangle Bus Corporation (current M21 route).

In 1933, two related companies began to operate routes: the Comprehensive Omnibus Corporation gained several Green Bus Lines routes (including the current M22, M27, and M50 routes), and the East Side Omnibus Corporation started operating former Second Avenue Railroad routes (including the current M15 and M31 routes). The Comprehensive also started the current M66 route that year, and in 1948 the New York City Board of Transportation acquired the Comprehensive and East Side routes, transferred to the New York City Transit Authority in 1953. The M9 route came from the Avenue B and East Broadway Transit Company in 1980, which had begun operating replacement routes for the Dry Dock, East Broadway and Battery Railroad lines in 1932.

Routes

This table gives details for the routes prefixed with "M" - in other words, those considered to run primarily in Manhattan by the MTA. For details on routes with other prefixes, see the following articles:

New York City Bus

The M2, M7, M14A/D, M15, M23, M42, M60, M79, M86, M96, M101, M102, M103 and M104 buses run 24 hours a day. Other bus routes do not operate overnight hours, usually defined as midnight to 5AM. The Manhattan bus routes should not be confused with Megabus routes with similar names/numbers originating from Manhattan.

East River

Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation

Roosevelt Island Red bus at the tramway station

This route is operated by Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) and is the lone unsubsidized route operating in Manhattan. The Red Bus route operates an on-island shuttle bus service from apartment buildings to the subway and tramway lines. Service is free.[39]

New route created and established on September 6, 1992 operating between Harlem - West 125 Street & Lenox Avenue subway station of the 2 and 3 trains, and the LaGuardia Airport's Main Central Terminal area only. Extended further west from Lenox Avenue to Broadway & West 106 Street in 1998.[49]

First became a branch of the M19 (which is now the M96), then the M106 in 1996.

M116

New York City Omnibus Corporation bus (M20 - 20) replaced New York Railways' 116th Street Crosstown Line streetcar on April 1, 1936.

Route M20 became M116 ca. 1989.

Former routes

Except for early Fifth Avenue Coach Company routes, which were approved by the New York Legislature, all routes were assigned a franchise by the city, numbered in order from M1 to at least M47 and M100 to M106. Most companies used these numbers, but the New York City Omnibus Corporation gave its routes numbers from 1 to 22, and the Fifth Avenue Coach Company used numbers from 1 to 20. The public designations were not changed to avoid conflicts until July 1974.

"Culture Bus Loop I" [57] M41 and B88 Culture Loop buses (I & II) began operating on the Memorial Day weekend on May 26, 1973. Both routes only operated during the weekends and holidays only. Both routes were discontinued after Labor Day on September 3, 1984.